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In Greek mythology, Rhoecus (Ancient Greek: Ῥοῖκος, romanized: Rhoîkos) is a rich man from Cnidus, an ancient Greek colony on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. According to the tale, Rhoecus saved a nymph and her tree from certain death, so the nymph agreed to be his lover, until his behaviour surled her against him. His brief tale survives in scattered ancient fragments and scholia from several authors.

Mythology

Rhoecus was a nobleman from Cnidus, an ancient city in Asia Minor. According to Charon of Lampsacus, apparently while in Nineveh he noticed an old oak tree that was in danger of being toppled over, and ordered his servants to prop it up. The hamadryad nymph who resided in the tree was greatly relieved, for Rhoecus had saved her from perishing along with the tree, so she promised him any boon he might ask from her. Smitten with her beauty, Rhoecus asked the nymph to become his lover. She agreed on the condition that he would remain faithful to her, and when time was due she would send for him via a bee.

Time passed, and the nymph sent the bee to summon Rhoecus, which found him in the middle of a game of draughts, and he reacted brusquely to the bee's presence. The nymph was enraged with his foul behaviour, so she blinded him. In another version by Pindar, the bee seems to sting him in responce to some sort of infidelity on his part against the nymph, and the unacceptable behaviour was probably a later development.

Culture

Humans being punished for being unable to keep an agreement with a (semi-)divine being is a common recurring theme in Greek mythology, as is the pattern of a man being asked to save or spare a nymph's sacred tree, and being accordingly rewarded or punished depending on his actions, as seen in the myths of Erysichthon and Paraebius.

See also

• Arcas, who married a nymph after saving her tree
• Daphnis, a man blinded by a nymph for being unfaithful

References

1. Scholia on Theocritus's Idylls 3.13c
2. ^ Johannsen, Nina (October 1, 2006). "Rhoecus". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Translated by Christine F. Salazar. Kiel: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1022780. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
3. Grimal 1987, p. 388.
4. Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica 2.477
5. Etymologicum Magnum s.v. 75.26-44
6. Pindar fr. 252 Schroeder
7. ^ Hard 2004, p. 211.

Bibliogaphy

• Etymologicum Magnum, edited by Friedrich Sylburg. Lipsiae: Apud J.A.G. Weigel. 1816. Online text available at the Internet Archive.
• Grimal, Pierre (1987). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
• Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H. J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology". Routledge. ISBN 9780415186360.
• Plutarch, Quaestiones Naturales in Moralia, Volume XI: On the Malice of Herodotus. Causes of Natural Phenomena, with an English translated from Greek by Lionel Pearson, F. H. Sandbach. Loeb Classical Library 426. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
• Wendel, Carl (1914). Scholia in Theocritum vetera. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.

• Mythological people from Anatolia
• Carian people
• Mythological blind people